Governor sues NCAA over Penn State sex scandal

(Reuters) – Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said on Wednesday he is seeking to have the costly sanctions levied by the NCAA against Penn State University over the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal thrown out, saying the punishment threatens to cause devastating damage to the state’s residents and economy.

The sanctions, which included an unprecedented $ 60 million fine, are “overreaching and unlawful,” he said at a news conference in State College where the university is located.

“I cannot and will not stand by and let it happen without a fight,” said the Republican governor, who was accused of dragging his feet on the Penn State scandal when he was state Attorney General.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court in Harrisburg to throw out all Sandusky-related sanctions that the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of U.S. collegiate sports, filed against Penn State.

At least one legal expert said the case is weak.

The NCAA fined Penn State $ 60 million in July and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons in a dramatic rebuke for the school’s failure to stop the assistant coach’s sexual abuse of children.

“The NCAA, and the competing colleges and universities represented on its governing boards, cynically and hypocritically exploited the tragedy of the Sandusky Offenses as a ‘blank check’ to impose crippling and unprecedented sanctions on an already weakened competitor,” the lawsuit said.

Corbett said the NCAA overstepped its bounds and said the case was “a criminal matter, not a violation of NCAA rules.”

The scandal was revealed by a grand jury Corbett convened in 2009 when he was Pennsylvania‘s attorney general.

State Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, said during her campaign last year that by convening the grand jury, Corbett failed to protect children by delaying prosecution for more than two years. She has vowed to probe his handling of the case. Corbett has said he would welcome such an investigation.

In a statement, Kane said she had not been consulted on the filing of the lawsuit and would reserve comment.

Pennsylvania voters also have expressed dissatisfaction with Corbett’s handling of the case. Nearly two thirds of registered voters said he did a fair or poor job, according to a Franklin & Marshall College survey in September.

Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive coordinator, was convicted in June of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, some in the football team’s showers. He is serving a prison term of 30 years to 60 years.

The scandal sparked a national discussion of child sex abuse, embarrassed the university and implicated top officials in a cover-up, including the late Joe Paterno, the legendary football head coach.

The NCAA said it was disappointed by Corbett’s move.

“Not only does this forthcoming lawsuit appear to be without merit, it is an affront to all of the victims in this tragedy – lives that were destroyed by the criminal actions of Jerry Sandusky,” NCAA General Counsel Donald Remy said in a statement.

Pennsylvania residents have also been unhappy with the NCAA sanctions. The Franklin & Marshall poll showed more than half the respondents believed they were unfair.

Although Corbett might be seen as pursuing the lawsuit to further his own political ends, “this decision will be popular among Pennsylvanians,” said Terry Madonna, a professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall and director of the poll.

At Wednesday’s press conference Corbett rejected any political motivation for the lawsuit.

Max Kennerly, a Philadelphia-based attorney who has followed the case closely, questioned the chances of the case succeeding. It was unclear if the governor has the legal authority to file such a lawsuit he said, adding courts have generally sided with the NCAA on issues of sanctions.

“It’s not a frivolous lawsuit, there are real arguments to make, but, boy is it weak,” he said.

James Schultz, general counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who will be handling the case, said the governor has legal standing to sue, because he is acting on behalf of residents and businesses “collaterally damaged” by the NCAA sanctions.

The sanctions harm those who depend on revenue from the Penn State football program and negatively impact the state’s tax revenue base.

Also, the lawsuit said: “The stigma attached will diminish recruitment of students and student athletes, as well as the value of a Penn State education, for decades.”

In State College, Pennsylvania where the university has its campus, Kathy Punt, manager of a motel used by football fans, said her business dropped 30 to 40 percent this past fall as fewer people attended the games.

“We didn’t get the Penn State fans who usually come in,” she said.

The university recently made the first payment of $ 12 million of the sanctions toward a national fund to support the victims of child abuse. Other sanctions included a ban on its football team from appearing in bowl games for four years.

According to the governor’s office, Penn State football was the second-most profitable, collegiate athletic program in the United States in 2010-11 when it brought in $ 50 million, generating more than $ 5 million in tax revenue.

Penn State released a statement saying it was not party to the lawsuit and reiterated its commitment to comply with the NCAA sanctions.

The governor was asked about the report into the Penn State scandal produced by former FBI director Louis Freeh that was the basis of the NCAA sanctions. The report was scathingly critical of the university and said Penn State leaders covered up Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children for years.

“The Freeh report is an incomplete report,” Corbett said.

The family of Joe Paterno, who was fired by Penn State trustees who said he failed to do enough when he was alerted to suspicions about Sandusky, said: “The fact that Governor Corbett now realizes, as do many others, that there was an inexcusable rush to judgment is encouraging.”

Paterno died a year ago of lung cancer.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Daniel Trotta, Dan Burns and Peter Rudegeair in New York and Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Kenneth Barry, Claudia Parsons and Leslie Gevirtz)

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GM recalls 145,628 mid-sized pickups for hood latch issue

(Reuters) – General Motors Co said on Thursday it is recalling 145,628 mid-sized pickup trucks globally as the hood could open unexpectedly due to a possible missing latch.

Of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups affected by the recall, 118,800 are in the United States, 15,264 are in Canada, 7,492 are in Mexico and the rest are exports, GM said.

GM is recalling the model year 2010 to 2012 trucks because the hood may be missing a secondary hood latch, so if the primary latch is not engaged the hood could open and block the driver’s view and increase the risk of a crash, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There are no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue, and there are four known cases of the secondary hood latch being missing, GM said.

GM said it will notify owners and instruct them to inspect their trucks for the presence of a secondary hood latch or take the truck to a dealer for inspection. If the secondary latch is missing, a new hood will be installed, the company said.

Dealers were notified of the issue on December 18 and GM expects to begin mailing letters to owners on January 17, according to NHTSA.

(Reporting By Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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HTC rumored to debut flagship ‘M7′ smartphone at CES

HTC (2498) will reportedly unveil a new flagship smartphone code-named “M7″ at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The rumor comes to us from XDA-Developers forum member “Football,” who reported accurate information about unreleased HTC devices in the past. The phone is believed to the be the successor to the One X and could be equipped with a 4.7-inch full HD 1920 x 1080-pixel display, a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 13-megapixel rear camera, LTE and HSPA+ connectivity, Beats Audio, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory and a 2,300 mAh battery. The M7 is also said to be HTC’s first smartphone to utilize on-screen navigation keys in place of traditional hardware buttons. 

[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]

The problem for HTC in the past has been the company’s ability to market its high-end devices to consumers. Despite class-leading features and hardware, HTC’s smartphone sales have stalled in the past year and the company has continued to lose market share. It will be interesting to see if it can turn things around in 2013.

[More from BGR: Microsoft lashes out at Google’s decision to spurn Windows Phone]

The Consumer Electronics Show is scheduled to take place from January 8th to January 11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This article was originally published by BGR

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U.S. pop singer Patti Page dies at age 85

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – American pop singer Patti Page, whose 1950 hit “Tennessee Waltz” topped the charts for months, has died in Southern California, her manager said on Wednesday. She was 85.

Nicknamed “The Singing’ Rage,” Page sold more than 100 million albums in her 67-year career, which included 1950s chart toppers “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window,” “I Went to Your Wedding” and “All My Love (Bolero).”

She died on Tuesday in a nursing home in Encinitas, north of San Diego, after suffering congestive heart failure, her manager, Michael Glynn, told Reuters.

“She’d been having some health issues for the past couple of years,” Glynn said. “She was actually doing better yesterday. I spoke to her and she sounded well.”

Page won a Grammy for her 1998 album “Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert” and will be honored with a lifetime achievement Grammy in February. She had expected to attend the ceremony, Glynn said.

Page was born in Oklahoma as Clara Ann Fowler in 1927 and was known for her light, every-girl voice. Her first big hit was “With My Eyes Wide Open, I’m Dreaming,” which peaked at No. 11 on the charts in 1950.

Eight years later, Page scored her penultimate top-10 song, “Left Right Out of Your Heart,” as rock ‘n’ roll was emerging as the dominant trend in popular music.

Her final big hit was “Hush … Hush Sweet Charlotte” in 1965. The song served as the theme of a film of the same name starring Bette Davis.

Her reputation was burnished in recent years when rock group The White Stripes covered her 1952 song “Conquest” on their Grammy-winning 2007 album “Icky Thump.”

She was married three times, most recently in 1990.

Page is survived by her two children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)

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U.S. economy to row against austerity tide in 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington has steered clear of severe austerity measures for now, reducing the risk of recession, but a clutch of U.S. tax hikes will nevertheless be a drag on economic growth this year.

The U.S. Congress approved a deal late on Tuesday to scale back some $ 600 billion in scheduled tax hikes and government spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff.”

Analysts said the package at least marked a temporary reprieve for the economy, and investors charged into U.S. stocks, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 up 2.5 percent on Wednesday.

However, the legislation, which is expected to be signed into law soon by President Barack Obama, will raise taxes on most Americans through a hike in the payroll tax used to fund Social Security pensions for the elderly.

Economists say the U.S. economy would likely grow much more quickly if the government was not raising taxes.

The payroll tax hike alone – which comes from the expiration of stimulus measures enacted to fight the 2007-09 recession – could push the average household tax bill up by about $ 700 this year, according to estimates from the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

That will likely reduce consumer spending and subtract about three quarters of a percentage point from economic growth, said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist at Deutsche Bank in New York.

The package will also raise income tax rates for households making over $ 450,000 a year, although rates will remain at 2012 levels for everyone else.

The other modest tax hikes, including a tax on wealthy households to help pay for Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform law, could shave another quarter of a point from growth.

“We are still getting some fiscal drag this year,” LaVorgna said.

Even so, the tenor of the deal was widely anticipated by economists in financial centers like Wall Street, and appears to support forecasts for economic growth of around 2 percent this year.

Barclays Capital said it was holding its growth forecast for this year at 2.1 percent.

A Reuters poll of analysts in December produced a median forecast for 1.9 percent U.S. economic growth in 2013.

“There seems to be a collective sigh of relief,” strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman wrote in a note to clients. “The full force of the U.S. fiscal cliff – (which) could have dragged the world’s largest economy into a recession – has been averted.”

The Congressional Budget Office had estimated that completely running over the fiscal cliff would have caused the economy to contract 0.5 percent this year. The full brunt of the cliff would have hit the average U.S. household with about an additional $ 3,500 in taxes this year, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Still, U.S. lawmakers only agreed to delay scheduled cuts on government spending on the military, education and other areas for another two months.

Many economists think ongoing talks in Congress will eventually lead these spending cuts to be put off until next year, presumably once lawmakers reach a deal to reduce spending over the longer term while granting the government authority to increase the national debt.

Then again, they might not reach a deal, and the planned spending cuts would then cut deeply into economic growth in the second half of the year.

“While we retain our 2013 GDP forecast, we also retain the view that fiscal policy presents downside risks to growth,” analysts at Barclays said in a research note.

Some economists noted that tax policy now looks more stable for the majority of Americans, removing some of the uncertainty that may have held back spending by consumers and business in recent months.

At the same time, with an axe still hanging above billions of dollars in government spending, many businesses are likely to remain cautious.

Analysts say financial markets are likely to remain on tenterhooks until Congress raises the nation’s $ 16.4 trillion debt ceiling, which the U.S. Treasury confirmed had been reached on Monday.

The government likely will need to raise the debt ceiling by February or March to remove the risk albeit remote, of the country defaulting on its debt. Such an extreme scenario would likely make it more expensive for governments and companies alike to borrow money, hurting the economy.

“We have some more certainty, but there are still quite a few questions left to be resolved,” said Dana Saporta, an economist at Credit Suisse.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Wall Street Market Report

31 December 2012 Last updated at 16:21 ET

Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

(Close): Wall Street shares rose after President Obama said that a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff was in sight.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 166.0 points, or 1.3%, at 13,104.1, following five days of losses.

It meant that the index was up 7% for the whole year.

The index had been little changed for much of the day, but rose after the president said: “There are still issues left to resolve but we’re hopeful Congress can get it done.”

But he warned that a deal was unlikely before the midnight deadline.

US markets are closed on Tuesday for the New Year holiday, which means they will be unaffected if a deal is done on Tuesday instead of Monday.

The day’s top gainer was Hewlett Packard, which rose 4.2%, although it has been one of the worst performers on the Dow Jones for the year as a whole, dropping about 45%.

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France counts 1,193 cars torched on New Year’s Eve

PARIS (AP) — A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s.

There was no way to compare this figure to recent ones because the conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped making the numbers public while he was in office. But the rate of burned cars was apparently steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, 1,147 vehicles were burned.

For some, the decision of France’s current Socialist government to resume making public figures of New Year’s Eve’s torched cars is unwise.

Bruno Beschizza, a security chief for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes.

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9 Apps to Fast-Track Your New Years’ Resolutions

Whether your goal in 2013 is to lose five pounds, manage your finances, or spend more time with friends and family, there are a growing number of apps that fall into the self-help category and can assist you in accomplishing these resolutions.

At Mashable we’ve tested a lot of them out, but we’re still always hearing about new ones. There are a ton of fitness and health apps to chose from, but you might be pleasantly surprised to know they’re not all about weight loss. A device and app called Tinke monitors your stress levels and how deeply you’re breathing. An app called Fig will remind you to drink more water, skip fried foods and take breaks at work to keep you feeling good. Arianna Huffington also released an app called, “GPS for the Soul” that focuses on wellbeing.

[More from Mashable: Time Machine App Transports You Back to 2012]

Other apps can help you organize your social life, make new friends or save money for a vacation.

We’ve compiled a list of apps that can help you accomplish all sorts of goals this year. Check it out and let us know if we missed any that you plan on using in 2013.

[More from Mashable: It’s Easy to Save Videos From Facebook Poke Permanently]

OurGroceries

If you’re trying to eat out less and cook at home more often, make sure you always have a current grocery list at your fingertips. Mashable wrote about several grocery list apps this year. The standout seems to be OurGroceries for Android and iOS. If you have roommates or a significant other, everyone can download the app and sync lists. That way if you’re making a quick after-work trip to the grocery store you’ll not only be able to see the items you added, but also see what they’ve added, too.

Click here to view this gallery.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, hocus-focus

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Playboy Hugh Hefner marries his ‘runaway bride’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.

The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his “runaway bride,” Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year’s Eve. Harris, a 26-year-old “Playmate of the Month” in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.

Playboy said on Tuesday that the couple celebrated at a New Year’s Eve party at the mansion with guests that included comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of KISS and baseball star Evan Longoria.

The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux. Hefner’s been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.

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Senate’s “fiscal cliff” bill adds $4 trillion to deficits: CBO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said Senate-passed legislation to avert the “fiscal cliff” would add nearly $ 4 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, largely because it would extend low tax rates for almost all Americans.

The congressional scorekeeper’s analysis was released as a number of Republicans in the House of Representatives voiced opposition to the bill, and considered amending it with deeper spending cuts.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and others complained the bill’s spending cuts would do little to curb trillion-dollar deficits.

Senate-passed plan extends decade-old Bush-era tax rates for individuals earning up to $ 400,000 and couples earning up to $ 450,000 – nearly 99 percent of U.S. taxpayers.

But the non-partisan CBO compared the Senate plan’s revenue and expenditure changes to laws that are currently in force, which call for $ 600 billion in tax hikes and automatic spending cuts in 2013 alone – effectively a dive off the fiscal cliff.

With Congress feverishly working to avoid the fiscal cliff in recent weeks, many Washington policymakers had viewed the current-law budget “baseline” as unlikely to be maintained.

Compared to an alternative CBO scenario in which Congress extends all expiring tax provisions and turns off automatic spending cuts slated to start taking effect this week, the Senate plan achieves minimal deficit reduction in the early years.

Over 10 years, deficits under the Senate plan would be $ 3.75 trillion less than permanently extending all of the tax and spending policies in the alternative scenario. That is largely because the CBO expects that remaining on an unsustainable fiscal path would severely constrict economic growth later in the decade, holding back revenue growth and keeping outlays higher.

FISCAL 2013 EFFECTS

By going over the fiscal cliff, the CBO had previously forecast that the higher taxes and lower spending would slash the fiscal 2013 U.S. budget deficit by more than half, to $ 641 billion from $ 1.1 trillion the prior year.

But in its analysis of the Senate-passed plan, the CBO said fiscal 2013 revenues would be $ 280 billion lower and spending $ 50 billion higher, resulting in a $ 330 billion deficit increase, for a total deficit of around $ 971 billion.

Under the CBO’s keep-taxes-unchanged scenario, the deficit would be $ 1.04 trillion for fiscal 2013.

None of the CBO’s analyses takes into consideration possible future spending cuts and reforms to federal health care and retirement programs that Congress might make in a new budget battle emerging around mid-February over the next increase in the U.S. debt limit.

(Reporting By Kim Dixon and David Lawder; Editing by David Gregorio and Vicki Allen)

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Housing and jobs key to lifting S&P toward record

NEW YORK (AP) — It may be a big if, but assuming Washington lawmakers can get past the “fiscal cliff,” many analysts say that the outlook for stocks next year is good, as a recovering housing market and an improving jobs outlook helps the economy maintain a slow, but steady recovery.

An advance of 10 percent in 2013 would send the S&P 500 toward, and possibly past, its record close of 1,565 reached in October 2007.

A mid-year rally in 2012 pushed stocks to their highest in more than four years. Both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained in 2012. Those advances came despite uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election and bouts of turmoil from Europe, where policy makers finally appear to be getting a grip on the region’s debt crisis.

“As you remove little bits of uncertainty, investors can then once again return to focusing on the fundamentals,” says Joseph Tanious, a global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. “Corporate America is actually doing quite well.”

Although earnings growth of S&P 500 listed companies dipped as low as 0.8 percent in the summer, analysts are predicting that it will rebound to average 9.5 percent for 2013, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Companies have also been hoarding cash. The amount of cash and cash-equivalents being held by companies listed in the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high $ 1 trillion at the end of September, 65 percent more than five years ago, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

By the time trading ended Monday, Republicans and Democrats still hadn’t reached a budget compromise — but investors were betting that they would — after President Barack Obama said that a compromise was “within sight,” but not finalized. Without a budget agreement, millions of Americans face the prospect of higher taxes and the government would be forced to slash spending, measures that would probably push the economy into recession, economists say.

Assuming a budget deal is reached in a reasonable amount of time, investors will be more comfortable owning stocks in 2013, allowing valuations to rise, says Tanious.

Stocks in the S&P 500 index are currently trading on a price-to-earnings multiple of about 13.5, compared with the average of 17.9 since 1988, according to S&P Capital IQ data. A lower-than-average ration suggests that stocks are cheap.

The stock market will also likely face less drag from the European debt crisis this year, said Steven Bulko, the chief investment officer at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. While policy makers in Europe have yet to come up with a comprehensive solution to the region’s woes, they appear to have a better handle on the region’s problems than they have for quite some time.

“There is still some heavy lifting that needs to be done in Europe,” said Bulko. Now, though, “we are dealing with much more manageable risk than we have had in the past few years.”

Next year may also see an increase in mergers and acquisitions as companies seeks to make use of the cash on their balance sheets, says Jarred Kessler, global head of equities at broker Cantor Fitzgerald.

While the number of M&A deals has gradually crept higher in the past four years, the dollar value of the deals remains remains well short of the total reached five years ago. U.S. targeted acquisitions totaled $ 964 billion through Dec. 27, according to data tracking firm Dealogic. That’s slightly down from last year’s total of $ 1 trillion and about 40 percent lower than in 2007, when deals worth $ 1.6 trillion were struck.

M&A deals are good for stock prices because the acquiring company typically pays a premium for the one it’s buying.

Falling interest rates also set off a rally in the bond market. Concerns about swings in stock prices prompted investors to switch money out of stocks and into bond funds. If investors decide that the bond rally may be nearing an end, that flow of funds may be reversed, providing a support for stocks.

“Equities are the best house in a bad neighborhood,” says Cantor’s Kessler. “Bonds are, not priced to euphoria, but they are definitely rich compared to equities right now.”

Not all investors are as sanguine about the prospects for 2013.

The rally in stocks in 2012 had less to do with company earnings and the economy and more to do with monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world, says David Wright, a managing director and co-founder at Sierra Investment Management in Santa Monica, Calif.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced Sept. 13 that the central bank would add another round to its bond-purchase program, known as “quantitative easing” on Wall Street, which is intended to lower borrowing costs and boost growth. Speculation that more stimulus was coming had pushed the S&P 500 index to 1,466, its highest close of the year, a day earlier. The Dow peaked for the year at 13,610, Oct. 5.

“The Fed has done everything it can do and is probably pretty close to having used its last bullet,” said Wright. “It’s been a good year for stocks, but we think that’s an artifact of monetary stimulus.”

This year’s peaks in the Dow and the S&P 500 won’t be surpassed in 2013 and stocks may even slump in the first quarter, as investors lower their earnings expectations, Wright says. The money manager also says that any budget plan, regardless of the details, will be negative for stocks as it will involve higher taxes and lower government spending.

Wells Fargo Securities market analyst Gina Martin Adams also says companies will struggle in the first half of the year as the economy flirts with recession. Export growth is slowing and policymakers are struggling to come up with a plan to reduce the budget deficit.

The bank recommends that investors add to their holdings of financial and utilities stocks because low rates should help support steady earnings growth in the early part of the 2013. Financial stocks advanced 25 percent in 2012, making them the best performing industry group in the S&P 500. Utility stocks fell 3.4 percent, the worst performing of 10 industry groups in the index. The bank says investors should reduce their exposure to so-called consumer discretionary stocks, such as hotels and restaurant companies, because consumer spending will likely take a hit next year as taxes rise.

With a backdrop of historically low interest rates and an economy that still needs to address its fiscal imbalances, investors should remain realistic about the returns they are going to get from the stock market, says Darell Krassnoff, managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

“Things are getting better, not worse, but you have to have reasonable expectations,” Krassnoff says.

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Pope marks end of difficult year, notes God’s good

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI marked the end of a difficult year Monday by saying that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails.

Benedict celebrated New Year’s Eve with a vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He appeared tired during the service and used a cane afterward — an indication that the busy Christmas season may be taking a toll on the 85-year-old Benedict.

In his homily, Benedict said it’s tough to remember that goodness prevails when bad news — death, violence and injustice — “makes more noise than good.” He said taking time to meditate in prolonged reflection and prayer can help “find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life.”

This past year was full of highs and lows for the pope, including a successful trip to Mexico and Cuba but also the betrayal of his butler, convicted in October of stealing Benedict’s personal papers and leaking them to a journalist.

After the service, Benedict was brought out in a covered car to pray before the Vatican’s main nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. Walking with a cane in the chilly piazza, Benedict chatted animatedly with the artist who crafted the scene, which recreated an entire village from the poor, southern Italian region of Basilicata which donated this year’s crèche.

The Vatican gladly accepted Basilicata’s donation after the €550,000 price tag the Vatican paid for the 2009 nativity scene was revealed in the documentation leaked by Benedict’s ex-butler Paolo Gabriele.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He received a pre-Christmas papal pardon and is expected to soon leave his Vatican City apartment for a new home and job elsewhere.

On Tuesday morning, Benedict celebrates a New Year’s Day Mass, which the Catholic Church celebrates as its world day of peace.

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Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers’ password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. Others will not kick in until later in the year.

The raft of measures includes a new abortion restriction in New Hampshire, public-employee pension reform in California and Alabama, same-sex marriage in Maryland, and a requirement that private insurers in Alaska cover autism in kids and young adults, NCSL said.

In New Hampshire, a rarely used form of late-term abortion will become illegal except to save the life of the mother – and even then only if two doctors from separate hospitals certify the procedure is medically necessary.

John Lynch, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, had vetoed the measure, saying it would threaten the lives of women in rural areas. But the state’s Republican-controlled legislature later overrode him.

In California and Illinois, laws that take effect at 12:01 a.m. local time will make it illegal for bosses to request social networking passwords or non-public online account information from their employees or job applicants.

Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately. The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But workers and job seekers in all three states will still need to be careful what they post online: Employers may continue to use publicly available social networking information. So inappropriate pictures, tweets and other social media indiscretions can still come back to haunt them.

Gun violence – in places where it’s all too common, such as Chicago, and in places where it’s unexpected, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut – was big news in 2012. But only a handful of new state firearms laws are set to take effect in 2013.

In Michigan, the definition of a “pistol” under the law will now include any firearm less than 26 inches in length. The new definition encompasses some rifles with folding stocks and will make the weapons subject to the same restrictions as pistols.

In Illinois, certain guns currently regulated by state law, including paintball guns, will be excluded from the definition of a firearm and participants in military re-enactments will be exempt from some weapons laws.

Another big story in 2012 was the effort by lawmakers in a number of cash-strapped states to put their public employee pension funds on a sounder financial footing.

In California and Alabama, reforms designed to begin to address the unfunded liabilities of those retirement systems will take effect in 2013.

Among the other new laws on the books in 2013:

* In California, prison workers and peace officers will now be prohibited from having sex with inmates and prisoners in transport.

* In Illinois, sex offenders will be prohibited from distributing candy on Halloween, or playing Santa or the Easter Bunny.

* In Oregon, employers won’t be allowed to advertise a job vacancy if they won’t consider applicants who are currently out of work.

* In Kentucky, residents will be prohibited from releasing feral or wild hogs back into the wild and Illinois will ban the possession and sale of shark fins.

* And in Florida, the term “motor vehicle” will no longer apply to the specialized all-terrain vehicles with over-sized tires known as “swamp buggies” that are popular in some parts of the state.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune and Nick Zieminski)

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Kardashian, West feel ‘blessed’ over baby news

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are feeling lucky about their first child together.

“It’s true,” the 32-year-old reality TV star said in a statement on her site Monday. “Kanye and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of our families, his mom and my dad could be here to celebrate this special time with us.”

Kardashian’s father, Robert Kardashian, died in 2003. West’s mother, Donda West, died in 2007.

Kardashian added in the blog post that she was “looking forward to great new beginnings in 2013 and to starting a family.”

The 35-year-old rapper revealed to a crowd of more than 5,000 in song form at a concert Sunday that his girlfriend is pregnant. Kardashian was in the crowd at Revel Resort’s Ovation Hall with her mother, Kris Jenner, and West’s mentor and best friend, Jay-Z.

The news instantly went viral online, with thousands posting and commenting on the expecting couple.

Most of the Kardashian clan tweeted about the news, including Kim’s sisters. Kourtney Kardashian wrote: “Another angel to welcome to our family. Overwhelmed with excitement!”

West told concertgoers to congratulate his “baby mom” and that this was the “most amazing thing.”

Representatives for West and Kardashian didn’t immediately respond to emails about the pregnancy.

The rapper and reality TV star went public with their relationship in March.

Kardashian married NBA player Kris Humphries in August 2011 and their divorce is not finalized.

West’s Sunday-night show was his third consecutive performance at Revel. He took the stage for nearly two hours, performing hits like “Good Life,” ”Jesus Walks” and “Clique” in an all-white ensemble with two bandmates.

Kardashian is expected to spend New Year’s Eve at public appearance at a Las Vegas nightclub.

___

AP Writer Bianca Roach contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin . Follow Bianca Roach at http://twitter.com/B__Roach

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Are recession babies prone to be delinquent teens?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new analysis of data on U.S. teens born during the early 1980s ties slightly higher rates of adolescent smoking, drinking, arrests and thefts to macroeconomic conditions during the first year of life.

What was “striking for us was it basically went across all socioeconomic strata,” said Dr. Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, the lead author of the study. “From a national level, it seems like everyone is affected.”

Ramanathan‘s study focused on babies born around the time of the recessions of 1980-1981 and 1982, when unemployment rates around the nation ranged from 6.6 percent to 11.25 percent, but she said she wouldn’t be surprised if the most recent recession also has a lasting impact.

“The mechanisms involved maybe different in intensity and severity, (but) based on the study it seems like there would be some effects,” said Ramanathan, a researcher at State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

Earlier research has suggested that widespread economic strain might negatively impact kids in the short term.

One group of researchers found that the rate of serious physical abuse towards children spiked as the U.S. economy crashed in 2007 (see Reuters Health report of September 19, 2011 here: http://reut.rs/q97xYA).

To get some sense of how recessions might affect children long term, Ramanathan and her colleagues used a 1997 survey of nearly 9,000 children who were born in the U.S. between 1980 and 1984.

The questions asked about drug, alcohol and gun use, arrests, theft and other behaviors.

The researchers were able to determine the economic circumstances for the region in which each kid spent his or her first two years of life.

They found that some of the delinquent behaviors were more common among children who were surrounded by higher unemployment during infancy.

For instance, the teens were nine percent more likely to use marijuana if the region where they celebrated their first birthday experienced a one percent drop in employment during the early 1980s.

This means that instead of 20 out of every 1,000 kids smoking pot, the increased risk in higher unemployment regions would result in 23 pot smokers out of every 1,000 teens.

Such an increase nationwide would result in 115,000 additional pot smokers, the group estimates in its report, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

“That’s a big number when you look at it,” Ramanathan told Reuters Health.

The risks for being arrested, joining a gang, stealing, and using alcohol and tobacco also increased between 6 percent and 17 percent among kids who were babies in areas experiencing a spike in unemployment.

The findings held up regardless of whether the kids grew up in wealthy homes or poor ones.

“These results suggest that, irrespective of socioeconomic status, unfavorable economic conditions during infancy may create circumstances that can have an adverse effect on the psychological development of the infant and lead to the development of behavioral problems,” the authors wrote in their study.

Assault, and the use of hard drugs or guns, however, were not affected by employment rates.

Ramanathan said it’s not clear why certain behaviors were more likely in regions impacted by the recessions.

“People have talked about how economic stability can help parents invest in the child’s development and how economic instability can affect family dynamics and the ability to be an effective parent,” she said.

But she added that this is speculation, and more studies need to unravel the factors that are taking root in infancy and spilling out in teenage delinquency.

“We can’t say high unemployment caused the effects. We don’t know what the mediating factors are,” Ramanathan said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/P0ZWgD Archives of General Psychiatry, online December 31, 2012.

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A Famous Short Seller Turns His Gaze Toward Singapore

The short-seller who made his reputation by savaging Chinese companies is turning his attention elsewhere. Carson Block, 36, whose research helped erase almost $ 7 billion of market value in China since 2010, says Olam International (OLAM), the Singapore-backed commodity merchant responsible for 90 percent of the world’s peanut trade, is a sham doomed to fail. “Comparisons to Enron are overused, but in the case of Olam, the similarities really are uncanny,” Block wrote in a Nov. 26 report to clients of his Los Angeles-based firm, Muddy Waters Research, which is shorting the peanut company. “We believe that the single biggest factor in Enron’s collapse was its use of accounting techniques similar to Olam’s value gains.” Olam’s U.S.-traded shares began a 20 percent plunge minutes after Block trashed the company at a Nov. 19 cancer benefit in London. According to Block, Olam uses noncash accounting gains to boost earnings, has been “burning cash,” and will need to raise or refinance as much as S$ 4.6 billion ($ 3.78 billion) of debt in the next year to stay solvent. Two days later, Olam, which has a market valuation of S$ 3.49 billion, sued Block and his firm for defamation in the Singapore High Court.

When he called out Olam, Block wasn’t just challenging the world’s dominant peanut company. He was also taking on Temasek Holdings, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund run by Ho Ching, the wife of the city-state’s prime minister. Temasek, which has S$ 198 billion in assets, is Olam’s second-largest shareholder, with a 16 percent stake. That stake has lost more than $ 100 million in value since Muddy Waters first questioned Olam’s finances.

Olam Chief Executive Officer Sunny Verghese dismisses Block’s claims as a means to “create panic,” citing more than S$ 10 billion of balance-sheet liquidity. On Dec. 3, Temasek said it would buy any unpurchased Olam bonds in its recent $ 1.25 billion offering. In a statement, Temasek’s senior managing director of investments, David Heng, said the fund’s executives are “comfortable with Olam’s credit position and longer-term prospects, and are pleased to have another opportunity to invest in the company, alongside other shareholders.” Temasek declined to comment further for this story.

Block shorts companies he claims are guilty of inconsistencies in their financial reporting or of outright fraud. “The Carson Block model of very detailed reports has set a new standard,” says Sahm Adrangi, who manages $ 125 million at New York-based hedge fund Kerrisdale Capital Management. Muddy Waters reports critical of Chinese firms listed on U.S. exchanges helped drive down the shares of eight companies, some with ties to the Chinese government, by an average of 60 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of Sino-Forest, which had a market value of about $ 6.1 billion, slumped 74 percent before the company filed for bankruptcy in March. (Temasek was a major investor.) Muddy Waters’ most recent shorts in China failed to pay off, though: Despite Block’s allegations of fraud, Beijing-based wiremaker Fushi Copperweld (FSIN) gained 25 percent on the Nasdaq this year after the China Development Bank loaned it money to buy back shares.

This year, Block says, he stopped betting against Chinese companies because government agencies, including the Ministry of State Security and the Public Security Bureau, are harassing his analysts and limiting their research. The Ministry of Public Security didn’t respond to requests for comment. A person who answered the Ministry of State Security’s listed number said the ministry does not handle media inquiries via phone or fax.

Block isn’t expecting such problems in Singapore. The Olam work should go more smoothly, he says. “We do not believe that Singapore is a thugocracy,” he said in an e-mail. The stakes are high, though, says Low Chee Keong, a professor of corporate law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Carson Block is putting his whole reputation on this one,” Low says. “He’s taking on the Singapore government, Singapore Inc. here.”

The bottom line: Peanut giant Olam is challenging Muddy Waters’ allegations of fraud and taking its founder to court.

Businessweek.com — Top News

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Pakistan militants kill 41 in mass execution, attack on Shi’ites

PESHWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 41 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups.

The United States has long pressured nuclear-armed ally Pakistan to crack down harder on both homegrown militants groups such as the Taliban and others which are based on its soil and attack Western forces in Afghanistan.

In the north, 21 men working for a government-backed paramilitary force were executed overnight after they were kidnapped last week, a provincial official said.

Twenty Shi’ite pilgrims died and 24 were wounded, meanwhile, when a car bomb targeted their bus convoy as it headed toward the Iranian border in the southwest, a doctor said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shias killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government’s failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was “indifferent” to the killings.

Pakistan, seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize the region before NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, denies allegations that it supports militant groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.

Afghan officials say Pakistan seems more genuine than ever about promoting peace in Afghanistan.

At home, it faces a variety of highly lethal militant groups that carry out suicide bombings, attack police and military facilities and launch sectarian attacks like the one on the bus in the southwest.

Witnesses said a blast targeted their three buses as they were overtaking a car about 60 km (35 miles) west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated Baluchistan province.

“The bus next to us caught on fire immediately,” said pilgrim Hussein Ali, 60. “We tried to save our companions, but were driven back by the intensity of the heat.”

Twenty people had been killed and 24 wounded, said an official at Mastung district hospital.

CONCERN OVER EXTREMIST SUNNI GROUPS

International attention has focused on al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.

But Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist Sunni groups, lead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are emerging as a major destabilizing force in a campaign designed to topple the government.

Their strategy now, the officials say, is to carry out attacks on Shi’ites to create the kind of sectarian tensions that pushed countries like Iraq to the brink of civil war.

As elections scheduled for next year approach, Pakistanis will be asking what sort of progress their leaders have made in the fight against militancy and a host of other issues, such as poverty, official corruption and chronic power cuts.

Pakistan’s Taliban have carried out a series of recent bold attacks, as military officials point to what they say is a power struggle in the group’s leadership revolving around whether it should ease attacks on the Pakistani state and join groups fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies a rift exists among its leaders.

In the attack in the northwest, officials said they had found the bodies of 21 men kidnapped from their checkpoints outside the provincial capital of Peshawar on Thursday. The men were executed one by one.

“They were tied up and blindfolded,” Naveed Anwar, a senior administration official, said by telephone.

“They were lined up and shot in the head,” said Habibullah Arif, another local official, also by telephone.

One man was shot and seriously wounded but survived, the officials said. He was in critical condition and being treated at a local hospital. Another had escaped before the shootings.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks.

“We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,” he said.

The powerful military has clawed back territory from the Taliban, but the kidnap and executions underline the insurgents’ ability to mount high-profile, deadly attacks in major cities.

This month, suicide bombers attacked Peshawar’s airport on December 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on December 22.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN and Gul Yousufzai in QUETTA; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ron Popeski)

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Purported photo of new BlackBerry phone with QWERTY keyboard leaks

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“The Hobbit” keeps box office crown for third week

(Reuters) – The dwarfs and elves of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” prevailed at the North American box office again over the weekend, as its $ 32.9 million in ticket sales topped both the star-packed musical “Les Miserables” and the western “Django Unchained.”

Despite surging past “The Hobbit” on Christmas day with an $ 18.1 million opening, “Les Miz” managed only third place in U.S. and Canadian sales with $ 28 million as Christmas shoppers returned from the malls to boost Hollywood‘s box office, according to studio estimates.

“The Hobbit,” in its third week of release, has now grossed $ 222.7 million domestically, Warner Bros said.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” a western starring Jamie Fox as a slave turned bounty hunter, took second with an impressive $ 30.7 million.

Tom Cruise’s crime drama “Jack Reacher,” which features author Lee Child’s former military investigator solving a fatal sniper attack, landed in fifth with $ 14 million, outpaced by “Parental Guidance,” the Billy Crystal-Bette Midler as grandparents comedy which took in $ 14.8 million to nab fourth.

Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for Fox, said the “Parental Guidance” performance was “just a tremendous result for our little engine that could.”

Backed by a musical score that made it a Broadway icon, “Les Miz” surged past “The Hobbit” on Christmas day, collecting $ 18.1 million to pass “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” with the biggest midweek opening day by a musical.

But it was not enough to conquer the “Hobbit” juggernaut, which scored its third straight box office weekend win.

Universal’s president for domestic distribution Nikki Rocco called the “Les Miz” $ 28 million take “phenomenal, especially considering we went into the weekend with $ 40 million,” an unexpectedly strong figure for its first few days in release.

“People really love this movie, which is even more rewarding and gratifying,” Rocco said.

“Les Miserables,” which stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, benefited from Oscar buzz and its star power, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box office division, who said he wouldn’t be surprised to see the musical pass $ 200 million before it’s done.

That would put it among the Hollywood‘s Top 20 best-selling musicals. It would pass the 1972 film “Cabaret,” which grossed $ 191 million in box office sales adjusted for higher ticket prices, and put it close to “Camelot,” which sold $ 204.5 million in 1967, according to the web site the-numbers.com.

The most successful musical is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which grossed more than $ 6.3 billion but has been re-released by Walt Disney nine times since its 1937 premiere, according to the site.

A rush of high-profile films in December is expected to push 2012 to a domestic box office record. The current record is $ 10.6 billion, set in 2009.

“Jack Reacher” debuted just days after the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting sparked new debate about the impact of movie violence. “Reacher” begins with a sniper killing a handful of seemingly random victims. A red-carpet premiere and a screening to promote the $ 60-million production were postponed after the December 14 Newtown tragedy.

Adult comedy “This is 40″ starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann as a middle-aged couple was sixth with $ 13.2 million. The Judd Apatow $ 35 million film totaled $ 37 million after two weeks. The seventh spot went to Steven Spielberg’s historical film “Lincoln,” with $ 7.5 million for a $ 132 million domestic total.

Comedy “The Guilt Trip,” starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as a mother and son on a cross-country drive, pulled in $ 6.7 million for eighth.

Also this week the latest James Bond hit “Skyfall” topped $ 1 billion in worldwide sales, despite falling out of the week’s top 10 films at the box office.

“The Hobbit” was distributed by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc released, “Jack Reacher” and “The Guilt Trip.” Comcast Corp’s Universal Studios released “Les Miserables” and “This is 40.” “Django Unchained” was released in the United States by the Weinstein Company.

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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It’s a fight over fitness in Santa Monica’s parks

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Physical fitness is a way of life on the beautiful beachfront oasis of Santa Monica. From sunrise to sunset, there’s huffing and puffing in the city’s parks as trainers put their students through the paces of every form of exercise imaginable.

All along the 420 acres of greenery paralleling the Pacific Ocean are groups of a dozen or more people furiously pumping iron, doing sit-ups, stepping on and off little benches and stretching on mats. Some flex their muscles with weight machines tied by big rubber bands to pretty much anything that’s anchored to the ground.

“It’s starting to look like a 24-Hour Fitness gym out there,” complained Johnny Gray, an assistant track coach at UCLA and former Olympic runner who says he’s often forced to navigate around weight machines, barbells and other exercise impediments as he runs.

In recent years, fitness classes have become as ubiquitous in Santa Monica’s signature Palisades Park as dog walkers and senior citizens playing shuffleboard.

Karen Ginsberg, the city’s director of community and cultural services, said other park users are complaining about fitness enthusiasts not only blocking pedestrian walkways but also making too much noise, killing the park’s grass with their weights and damaging its trees and benches with all the exercise gadgets they connect to them.

“Some people have also expressed concerns about people operating a business on city land and putting the city at risk of liability because they aren’t carrying insurance,” she said.

So now the City Council is considering requiring that fitness trainers who conduct workouts in Santa Monica’s parks and on its beaches pay an annual $ 100 fee and turn over 15 percent of their gross revenues to the city.

The council was to take up the issue of regulating fitness trainers this month, but that’s now been pushed back to at least March. Meantime, Ginsberg said city officials are looking at what restrictions they might put on the use of weights, bands and other equipment.

Although classes offering everything from fitness training to yoga to meditation can be found at several city parks and all over Santa Monica’s beaches, Palisades Park, with its stunning ocean views, is by far the most popular place.

As a result, city officials are considering limiting exercise class sizes there to no more than two students per trainer. Under the proposal being considered, other venues could still accommodate the larger groups as long as trainers pay the fees and provide proof of insurance.

The trainers respond that, like any responsible business operators, many already are insured and also know CPR. They also point out that they currently pay the city for business licenses and police-issued permits to hold their classes in the park. Although they don’t have to pay rent to anyone, they believe that’s enough overhead.

“I could easily go back indoors but that’s what I wanted to get away from,” said Ruben Lawrence, who has been offering boxing and fitness training classes at Palisades and other parks for six years. “I wanted to provide these programs to the masses at affordable rates to the community in a place people enjoy.”

Since the city began discussing the additional regulations, Lawrence said, he’s moved most of his classes to other parks in Santa Monica. If he has to pay the additional fees, however, he said he’ll likely just relocate to a gym.

Raisa Lilling, who offers vigorous exercise classes to the mothers of newborns, said she and other trainers have been working to keep their students quiet and out of the way of dog walkers, camera-toting tourists and others.

“I can absolutely see where they’re coming from, but a complete ban, I think, is a little extreme,” said Lilling, adding that the sides can always find a middle ground.

Lilling offers Stroller Strides classes in which mothers push kids in strollers across the park. As part of their workout, they’ll stop from time to time for vigorous bursts of cardio activity, including running up and down the park’s steep stairways to the beach while Lilling watch the kids.

“It’s not just a stroll in the park,” laughed the trainer, who is certified in CPR, carries insurance and also teaches yoga classes.

Ginsberg, emphasizing that planners are still fine-tuning the proposed regulations, agreed there should be a middle ground.

“I think we have to strike a balance between wanting an active community, which I think we do want, with the need to have some sort of ability for all users to enjoy our parks, particularly Palisades Park,” she said.

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